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Monthly Archives: April 2009

“For there are eunuchs, that were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, that were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, that made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” – Matthew 19:12

The panic has spread using social networking website, Twitter, which is almost unnecessary to the same degree as the Large Hadron Collider “destroying the Universe” back in September last year. Nevertheless, people have a right to be concerned and worried.

So remember kids, it’s ok to be concerned and worried, just keep it to yourself please.

Also weighing in is self-described Internet communications expert Evgeny Morozov with a piece titled Swine flu: Twitter’s power to misinform. It seems that everyone’s twittering about swine flu due to peer pressure:

Thus, Unlike basic internet search – which has been already been nicely used by Google to track emerging flu epidemics – Twitter seems to have introduced too much noise into the process: as opposed to search requests which are generally motivated only by a desire to learn more about a given subject, too many Twitter conversations about swine flu seem to be motivated by desires to fit in, do what one’s friends do (i.e. tweet about it) or simply gain more popularity.

So I guess twitter is like a giant global high school. Morozov’s suggestion? A real hard-ass vice principal:

In moments like this, one is tempted to lament the death of broadcasting, for it seems that the information from expert sources – government, doctors, and the like – should probably be prioritized over everything else and have a higher chance of being seen that the information from the rest of one’s Twitter-feed, full of speculation, misinformation, and gossip.

Morozov goes on to discuss the trend of corporations using Twitter to shape the conversation about their brands:

A recent New York Times piece highlighted how a growing number of corporations like Starbucks, Dell, and Whole Foods are turning to Twitter to monitor and partially shape conversation about particular brands or products. What the piece failed to mention was that conversations about more serious topics (like pandemics- and their tragic consequences) could be shaped as well.

It pains me to say this as an American, but we are the only people on earth dumb enough to use a nationwide campaign of “teabag parties” as a form of mass protest, in the middle of a real economic crisis.

When you read Ann Coulter, you know you’re reading someone who would fuck a hippopotamus if she thought it would boost her Q rating. That’s a rare quality and it commands one’s attention.

And scary bible stories:

what does it mean when my own parents tell me, with a straight face, a story about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son? You’re a little kid, listening at bedtime in your pee-jays to the story, expecting that Abraham is going to tell God to go fuck himself because he loves his children so much, and be rewarded for doing so. Instead it’s exactly the opposite, the father in the story is rewarded for being willing to carve his innocent son up with a knife, the moral of the story somehow being not that God is an insane murderous psychopath, but that God is just and wise and should be obeyed. When the story is over, Dad tucks you in to bed and says he’ll see you in the morning. Now that’s realism for you.

Quite a few long pieces up there, mostly focused on US economic woes and bailouts. Good place to spend an hour.

So if you’re lucky enough to be employed and still able to pay your cable bill, and blessed enough to have IFC On Demand, you should look for a documentary premiering April 16: New World Order. The film features Alex Jones along with an assortment of 9/11 truthers, Bilderberg buffs, and NWO theorists. Love him or hate him, you have to admit Alex Jones has presence. If you’ve seen A Scanner Darkly, you’ll remember Alex as the guy with the bullhorn warning the world one passerby at a time. Definitely worth tuning in whenever the urge strikes. I”m hoping the film will confirm Ann Coulter is a Ron Paul loving Lizard Man, but I’d watch it even if it didn’t.